Principal clarinettist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Maximiliano Martín joins forces with pianist Scott Mitchell for what is more or less an exploration of the 19th- and 20th-century French repertory. The title, ‘Origines et départs’, however, refers to two short contemporary works at its mid-point, neither by a French composer, though both have strong autobiographical resonances.

Born on Tenerife, Martín was brought up in the same village as composer Gustavo Trujillo, whose Souvenir, written last year, reworks material from his Clarinet Concerto No 1, Travesía (‘Crossing’), which Martín also premiered in 2018. Scotland, where he now lives, meanwhile, is represented by Elegiac Waltz, composed in 2002 by Eddie McGuire, whose work Martín first encountered shortly after his move. Both pieces are rooted in folk music, and neither seems quite at home stylistically in an otherwise carefully structured programme, in which Honegger’s austere, at times motoric Sonatine of 1922 – a work we don’t hear as often as we should – is placed alongside the more familiar sonatas by Saint-Saëns and Poulenc and a clutch of shorter pieces, mostly rarities, including Philippe Gaubert’s lovely Fantaisie from 1911 and Pierné’s Canzonetta, classy salon music, written in 1888.

The performances are strong, at times strikingly intense, occasionally large in gesture and scale. It’s an approach particularly well suited to the Poulenc Sonata, written in Honegger’s memory, where anger and grief nag at the opening flourishes and very much colour the subsequent Allegro before the très calme central section offers temporary consolation. The Romanza is deeply felt and extraordinarily melancholy: the final movement, for all its buoyant virtuosity, doesn’t quite sweep the prevailing sadness away.

Martín’s tone throughout is dark, warm and sweet, while Michell can be weighty and percussive, making the great Lento of the Saint-Saëns Sonata startlingly bleak after the mercurial scherzo that precedes it: the performance doesn’t quite have the unity of purpose of Michael Collins and Noriko Ogawa (Chandos, 9/21), though the best of it is deeply affecting, above all, perhaps, the finale, when the work’s bittersweet opening theme returns, reflective, ambiguous and troubling, at its close.

There is much to enjoy elsewhere, too, though the close recording makes Mitchell over-prominent at times, notably in Elegiac Waltz, where his brittle, glassy staccatos sometimes threaten to overpower Martín’s low, lyrical lines. Honegger’s Sonatine, bitter and troubled until we reach the powerhouse, jazz-inflected finale, is terrific, as is Gaubert’s Fantaisie, with its melodic refinement and Impressionist harmonies. Chausson’s Andante et allegro, a student effort indebted to Franck and Massenet, brings Martín’s considerable technical dexterity to the fore, while the Pierné is nicely elegant and urbane. Despite its occasional flaws, it’s an engaging recital, finely done.